Source Description

The document possibly most significant for Friedrich
Wilhelm Lübbert’s life (and survival) is dated October 17, 1944 and signed by “General der Flieger und Chef
des Ministeramts Reichsmarschall” Karl Bodenschatz. In it he
confirms that Friedrich Wilhelm Lübbert,
a businessman of Jewish ancestry, was exempted from any
further measures by the state police after he had undergone sterilization as
stipulated in an agreement between Reichsmarschall
Hermann Göring and
Reichsführer SSHeinrich Himmler. Like
many other German Jews who were baptized and whose family had been assimilated
for generations, Friedrich Wilhelm Lübbert was
persecuted during National
Socialist rule. According to the 1935
Nuremberg Laws, he was
considered a “first degree Mixed-blood” Mischling ersten Grades. In the early
1940s there were
discussions about mass sterilization of this group of people in order to prevent
their procreation. While there never was a decision in the matter, this document
proves that “Mixed-bloods”
were increasingly marginalized and threatened and that sterilizations were
indeed carried out. This one-page, typed confirmation was issued using the
letterhead of the “Reichsmarschall des Großdeutschen Reiches Chef des
Ministeramtes,” whose office was located at Prinz-Albrecht-Str. 5 in
Berlin. The
document is part of the Lübbert estate Nachlass
Lübbert housed at the Militärhistorisches Museum der
Bundeswehr (MHM) in Dresden today. The
original is featured in its permanent exhibition.